Thursday, February 25, 2010

This is a new piece I made recently and couldn't wait to share it with you. It will be on display at Eye of the Eagle Art in Clayton, NC, in August. The piece is 12 inches square and I call it "Matters of Art".

I challenged myself to create a piece using only recycled/trash materials. I largely succeeded in that there are around 40 distinct items that comprise the surface of this little quilt, and nearly all would have been destined for the bin. I think the only things I used that don't qualify are a few eyelets and brads, the mirror that is in the center of the bottom central piece, the interfacing, backing fabric, paint and thread.

Each of the 9 smaller vignettes are 3 inches square, created as separate, complete pieces, and stitched to the background (which happens to be covered with dryer sheets). In the one above, I used a brown paper bag, a puzzle piece covered by a napkin, part of a wrapper from chopsticks, some beads from a broken necklace, the metal center of a floppy disk, the calendar dial from an old watch, and the foil top from a bottle of wine.

This is the piece that inspired Jenny's turtle in my previous post. Cut up CD pieces on a piece from an old map.

How many things can you find? Take a close look! You might be surprised.

I haven't had much time in my studio due to the sudden death of my VAN. I have been car shopping for the past week. We are getting close to a decision. I hope we will have something by the weekend. But ... it is still early, no one is open for business yet, and I am going to go upstairs and DO something. ~ Michelle

Monday, February 15, 2010

I had hoped to post this yesterday and wish you all a Happy Valentines Day, so please accept the wishes a day late. This is the postcard I submitted to Fiber Arts for their annual Valentines event. I sent it to myself! It travelled nicely through the mail and arrived right on time. Fiber Arts has their offices located in Loveland Colorado, and each year you can send them your Valentines postcards and they put a special Loveland cancellation stamp on them. Sometime soon they should have all the entries posted on their website. It is always fun to view the collection! A few even end up in their magazine.

We made Red Velvet cupcakes a few weeks ago. They were yummy. I wish I could send one to each and every one of you!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

I just realized yesterday was the three year anniversary of starting this blog. Wow. That's hard to believe!

This weekend is the "Artists Unite for Haiti" art sale at the LoDi Project here in Raleigh. I just got home from dropping off some artwork - mine, my daughter's, and a stack from my daughter's middle school (she share the info with the art teacher and it kind of took off).

It's an "anonymous" sale, in that the pieces are not to be signed on the front. If you purchase a piece, you won't know who the artist is until after the purchase. I am going to give you a sneak peek of our pieces! All art is $25 and all proceeds will be donated to the Mercy Corps to help in Haiti.

This first piece is 5x7. It is an older dryer sheet piece, matted to 8x10. I call it "me encanta".

This is a larger piece (12x16) and also made from recycled dryer sheets. The background is new, I made it this week. The three panels on top were made as one 8x10 piece a few years ago. I split it into three, and finished off the edges. I call it "harlequin triptych". A detail of the piece is below.

The next photo is a portion of a piece I completed last week. I can't share the whole thing just yet as I am waiting to hear if it is accepted into a show. My daughter saw this, though, and it inspired her idea for the piece that she donated to "Artists Unite for Haiti" ...

And here she is with "turtle love". I thought it was such a great idea ... I told her I wish I had thought of it!

The background is an acrylic wash, the turtle is built up layers of tissue paper, and the shell is made from recycled CDs. I just love it!

We are both hopeful that our pieces will sell, and that the sale is a great success. They had hundreds of pieces of artwork there when we dropped off our things. It was humbling to see such a tremendous outpouring from the artistic community throughout the world. If you are on facebook, you can become a fan of "Artists Unite for Haiti" and follow the progress!